innovation DAILY

Here we highlight selected innovation related articles from around the world on a daily basis. These articles related to innovation and funding for innovative companies, and best practices for innovation based economic development.

To be effective when pitching your start-up “you have 20 seconds to be compelling or you might as well go home”. That was the core piece of advice that Bill Reichert from Garage Technology Ventures, a Silicon Valley based VC Fund, highlighted in his presentation at the 2016 StartCon Event that ran this past weekend in Sydney.

The U.S. ranks second on a global manufacturing competitiveness index, according to the 2016 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index by research firm Deloitte Global and the Council on Competitiveness. The U.S. ranking has improved in each of the past studies and is poised to take over that top spot from China by 2020, the study maintains. However, executives from across the world in responding to the study, noted that talent is the leading factor in determining manufacturing competitiveness, and finding and cultivating that talent is a topic that has received increasing attention from the manufacturing sector.

The 2017 NASA SBIR/STTR Program Solicitation was released via the NASA SBIR/STTR public website and cross listed on www.sbir.gov . NASA is seeking proposals from small businesses and partnering research institutions for research, development, and demonstration of innovative technologies that will address NASA interests and have significant potential for successful transition of technology into NASA mission programs and other markets.

The Trump administration will have an opportunity to reevaluate policies that affect innovation and technological development. How can federal policies promote broadband buildout, spur investment in intelligent infrastructure, encourage research and development, and advance a host of other actions that have the potential to improve productivity and the U.S. economy? Join ITIF and the Technology Policy Institute to discuss how the Trump administration can accelerate the pace of innovation in the U.S. economy.

The skillset necessary for entrepreneurial success is changing rapidly.

There’s an irony to being a start-up founder these days. As the next generation of entrepreneurs emerges with disruptive designs on their respective industries, they’re entering a business world that has already been disrupted by start-ups that have gone before. The certainties of even five or ten years ago no longer apply. Because the rulebook is being extensively rewritten, we should expect start-up failure rates to remain high, even as the opportunities for the successful few have never been greater.

Leading an organisation’s digital transformation requires simultaneously tackling three questions.

With digital disruption no longer a question of “if” but “when”, CEOs are increasingly focused on transforming their organisations to reap the benefits, and meet the challenges brought by the successive waves of technological innovations.

FITCHBURG – There’s probably no “secret sauce” for what makes some communities successful and others not, although the recipe usually includes a homegrown mix of economic vibrancy, civic leadership and a dash of urgency.

Such is the case these days in a number of Wisconsin communities that have charted competitive paths forward, often banking on indigenous strengths and local “champions” from both the private and public sectors.

Madison is one story that sometimes catches national attention because of its growing base of startup and emerging companies, but there are other examples, as well. 

Stephen Hawking made a bold headline last week: “This is the most dangerous time for our planet.”

In an essay in the Guardian, the renowned theoretical physicist wrote: “Whatever we might think about the decision by the British electorate to reject membership of the European Union and by the American public to embrace Donald Trump as their next president, there is no doubt in the minds of commentators that this was a cry of anger by people who felt they had been abandoned by their leaders.”

Stress can be detrimental to your health, contributing to everything from higher blood pressure to nausea. Now, a new study zeroes in one of the the biggest sources of stress—our jobs—and suggests that exercise may be an effective way to ease the health problems sometimes caused by work stress.

Big data’s potential just keeps growing. Taking full advantage means companies must incorporate analytics into their strategic vision and use it to make better, faster decisions.

Is big data all hype? To the contrary: earlier research may have given only a partial view of the ultimate impact. A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), The age of analytics: Competing in a data-driven world, suggests that the range of applications and opportunities has grown and will continue to expand. Given rapid technological advances, the question for companies now is how to integrate new capabilities into their operations and strategies—and position themselves in a world where analytics can upend entire industries.

Companies must be prepared to tear themselves away from routine thinking and behavior.

Imagine. You lead a large basic-resources business. For the past decade, the global commodities supercycle has fueled volume growth and higher prices, shaping your company’s processes and culture and defining its outlook. Most of the top team cannot remember a time when the business priorities were different. Then one day it dawns on you that the party is over.

On Valentine's Day 2014 Elizabeth Droge-Young admitted herself to a hospital in Syracuse, N.Y. For more than a year, she had been struggling with depression—not eating well and losing interest in the movies, books and music that usually delighted her. She had withdrawn from her friends and was routinely missing classes at Syracuse University, where she was a fifth-year graduate student in evolutionary biology. Some days that winter she could not even make it out of bed, despite the fact that she had started taking antidepressants the previous fall. In her darkest moments, obsessive and frightening thoughts of self-harm and suicide flooded her mind. “It was horrible,” she recalls. “I felt very unsafe.” She realized she needed a serious intervention.

WASHINGTON- For many Americans the post-recession economy doesn't present the opportunity they wished came with growth. Rising stock prices and low unemployment have masked a low-growth status quo that threatens future U.S. prosperity. Drawing on proprietary Gallup data, the U.S. Council on Competitiveness and Gallup released "No Recovery," which examines the problems that persist with declining productivity growth.

A defining moment in modern biology occurred on July 24, 1978, when biotechnology pioneer Robert Swanson, who had recently co-founded Genentech, brought two young scientists to dinner with Thomas Perkins, the legendary venture capitalist. As they stood outside Perkins’s magnificent mansion in Marin County, with its swimming pool and garden and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Swanson turned to his two young colleagues and said, “This is what we’re all working for.”

Innovation drives countries’ long-term economic growth and improvements in quality of life. But the competition amongst nations for innovation leadership has intensified even as the increased complexity of technological innovation has made it more difficult to achieve. For these reasons, the federal government needs to step up its game when it comes to technology commercialization policies and programs.

If America is going to effectively compete with the world in the modern global innovation economy, it will need to do a better job of transforming knowledge into new companies and products here at home. Achieving this requires new policies that can help get technologies out of the laboratory and transfer them to market for commercialization by private-sector actors.

WASHINGTON, DC – Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), sponsors of the 21st Century Cures Act, issued the following statement after the Senate passed the medical innovation bill by a vote of 94-5.

“After three years, our legislative work is finally complete. 21st Century Cures is ready for the president,” said Upton and DeGette. “With this innovation game-changer, a new day for medical research is on the horizon. Today’s vote is for patients and their loved ones. We all have more reason for hope.”

Partnerships with industry and the promotion of technology transfer and commercialization are increasingly important for ensuring the widespread dissemination and deployment of national laboratory innovations. Argonne National Laboratory contracted with Innovation Associates to identify exemplars from national laboratories that could serve as models for enhancing industry partnerships, technology transfer, and commercialization for Argonne and other national laboratories in a recent report, Enhancing National Laboratory Partnership and Commercialization Opportunities.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA—DECEMBER 7, 2016—Curt Nelson, President and CEO of Cedar Rapids-based business accelerator Entrepreneurial Development Center (EDC), Manager of Iowa Seed Funds I & II, has been named President of the Iowa Venture Capital Association (IVCA). The IVCA was formed in late 2015 as a non-profit organization with 30 member companies that influence and contribute to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the State of Iowa. The member organizations range from seed-stage to later-stage venture capital funds, providing critical capital to Iowa-based businesses; from start-ups to later-stage growth entities.

Plentiful, high-paying spots on assembly lines were once a powerhouse component in the employment mix in the U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign trafficked heavily in the idea that it’s time to wrest these jobs back to our shores and return the American worker to a dependable middle class existence. The message was met with eager ears, especially in parts of the traditional U.S. manufacturing base.

It ranked as the best tech company to work for in 2017 and came in second among U.S. companies overall, according to a new report from Glassdoor. The ninth annual list is based on employee reviews posted on the job site from Nov. 2, 2015 to Oct. 30, 2016.

‘Tis the time of year when the frenzy of holiday shopping hits and you find yourself wracking your brain for good gift ideas. This time, you’re trying to plan far enough ahead so you don’t end up emailing Amazon e-certificates at the 11th hour.

Fear not, there’s still plenty of time to get everyone a thoughtful and really cool gift. Here’s a handy guide of tech gifts for everyone you’re shopping for. Ranging from affordable to splurge-worthy, there’s plenty of tech to go around.

The biggest battle you have to win when raising capital is the battle in your head. This battle begins long before any shots are fired. As an entrepreneur, you must be willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. First and foremost, you must unconditionally adopt the attitude of “failure is not an option.” Visualize, in detail, on a daily basis, your successful outcome. With that said, you’re going to be playing many roles in this process (from general to officer to infantryman). Many of your days will be spent doing the less than glamorous tasks of preparation and prospecting. Accept that now. If you want to be the leader of a Fortune 100 company some day, you have to start by paying your dues today—it’s simply the cost of success.

Bayh-Dole passed in a time just like this. In 1980 a candidate who was widely derided by the media unexpectedly won the presidency when voters concerned with the direction of the country decided to shake things up. At the time many pundits were writing that America’s best days were behind us and we should resign ourselves to no longer being the leading economic power. We had widespread unemployment, had lost our lead in traditional industries like cars, electronics and steel and it looked like just a matter of time until we lost the rest. Many of the “best and brightest” said our only hope was to copy the Japanese model where centralized government planners working with dominant companies confidently charted the economic future. They added that the days of “cowboy entrepreneurs” were over.

Video-analytics technology is transforming the Internet of Things and creating new opportunities. Are companies prepared to capture growth?

Some of the most innovative Internet of Things (IoT) applications involve video analytics—a technology that applies machine-learning algorithms to video feeds, allowing cameras to recognize people, objects, and situations automatically. These applications are relatively new, but several factors are encouraging their growth, including the increased sophistication of analytical algorithms and lower costs for hardware, software, and storage.

Minebea, a Japanese automotive industry supplier, will invest EUR 60 million in a new factory in the city of Kosice, Eastern Slovakia. The investment may increase to EUR 100 million and may also include a research & development center, if all goes well.

The company also considered Romania for opening the new plant, according to the Slovak newspaper Slovak Spectator. Although labor costs are lower in Romania, Minebea chose Slovakia for its higher availability of well-trained engineers and technicians.

Ascension Ventures (AV) has finalized its latest strategic venture capital fund at $255 million. This fourth fund for AV, CHV IV, L.P., brings the firm’s total assets under management to more than $800 million. The new fund is backed by 13 health system partners, which enable AV to continue to add value to its portfolio companies while simultaneously delivering financial and strategic returns to the partners.

For many years, companies were convinced of the competitive advantage of closed research and development. They jealously protected their intellectual property behind closed doors and dramatically revealed it to the public after years of development. This old model has since been replaced by open innovation. Open innovation is a term coined by Professor Henry Chesbrough in his book, Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology. Specifically, Chesbrough defines open innovation as “a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology.”

Four months after announcing his departure from Google Ventures (now GV), which he cofounded and led, Bill Maris is reportedly raising a fresh $230 million VC fund that will focus on healthcare investments.

News of the fund first leaked in September in an article on CNBC. Citing anonymous sources, it said Maris had “preliminary plans to raise between $350 million and $500 million, though no amount has been set.”

The University of Washington (UW) has teamed up with Amazon to launch a startup accelerator, in an effort to help the tech powerhouse connect to new companies that are fueling innovation in artificial intelligence.

The Alexa Accelerator will take place at UW's Startup Hall (above).

Powered by Techstars and created by Amazon’s $100 million Alexa Fund, the newly launched Alexa Accelerator aims to advance conversational AI, including speech technology and voice application. The startup accelerator is “built around the belief that voice will fundamentally improve the way we interact with technology,” according to an announcement from Amazon.

On Monday meat processor Tyson Foods announced it would be creating a $150 million venture capital fund designed to "fuel the future of food."

The fund, called Tyson New Ventures, will be looking for companies that are pursuing new ways to commercialize "delicious, safe and affordable alternative proteins," fight hunger and food loss, as well as tapping into the so-called "Internet of food" that uses technology and the internet to improve the food chain process.

In Lagos, Nigeria, a man straddles a motorcycle. He speeds off into the sprawling network of streets in Africa’s largest city to deliver a package.

The biker is a delivery driver for MAX, a fledgling Nigerian startup that is trying to solve the problem of so-called “last-mile delivery.” How do you pick up and deliver packages or food in an efficient way in a city where many people don’t have an address?

Melbourne is promoting itself as a global city, to attract the best international companies to set up APAC headquarters. Two years ago, I profiled Melbourne’s startup and innovation ecosystem. Then, the local community was kicking into gear and several U.S. companies like Eventbrite planted itself in the city.

Today, Melbourne’s ecosystem is flourishing and a swath of international tech companies like Zendesk, Slack, Square, Hired, Stripe and GoPro are heading straight there. The energy, reputation and support from the Victorian Government have been major drivers for this. Despite this success, it’s still early and the people know there’s much more work to be done.

Parents, it’s time to push your kids to think beyond the lemonade stand. In today’s fast-paced global workforce, you're never too young to hone your entrepreneurial skills or start thinking like a business owner. Mashable reports 72 percent of Gen Z-ers want to start their own businesses.

Brothers Adam Toren and Matthew Toren are the founders of Kidpreneurs, a movement to empower young entrepreneurs. Their productions so far include an award-winning book for 7- to 12-year-olds that's already shipped more than 100,000 copies, an interactive parent-teacher guide and digital video kids' academy and Young Entrepreneur (acquired by Entrepreneur.com).

With the development of Big Data mining, robotics and artificial intelligence, we are looking at the possibility of machines taking over a number of intellectual tasks, which is leading people to ask complicated questions such as, ‘What exactly makes humans special?’ This is not just a philosophical question, it is an economic one, because it amounts to asking, ‘What is the best division of labour between minds and machines?’

A few years ago, I was watching an interview with Seth Godin, who is one of my heroes of the business world. He was explaining the core differences between entrepreneurship and freelancing. I was getting heated just listening to him.

Formal and informal communication networks often corrupt rather than complement one another.

In addition to its technical difficulties, designing an engine for commercial aircraft poses a daunting logistical challenge. Since each failed iteration can cost the manufacturer millions, it is imperative that the efforts of dozens of design teams be smoothly coordinated, which is easier said than done considering that the simplest tweak from one team can affect the work of many others. If the teams aren’t communicating enough about their points of overlap, expensive errors may occur.

Traveling the world and experiencing new cultures and ways of life is a dream of many human beings. The thrill of an airplane lifting off, the excitement of getting a visa stamp from a foreign country, and the first taste of food that you would have never dreamed of eating all make life a little more interesting. As we come to the end of another year, you may even be making plans for some exciting destinations that you plan to travel to in the New Year. You may have added some places to your bucket list.

Lingering for more than two years, the revamped 21st Century Cures bill, unveiled late Friday, now appears slated for House and Senate passage before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

The 996-page bill includes major tweaks to the way in which the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates drugs, devices and biologics, while providing the agency with $500 million over 10 years to implement provisions that seek to move such products to patients more quickly, while maintaining the same standard for safety and effectiveness that the agency has adhered to in the past.

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